http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexprison6jan06,1,6493057.story?coll=la-headlines-world
January 6, 2005
Slaying Points Up Mexico's Weak Grip
# The third prison killing in a year highlights the government's
apparent inability to control the penal system or rein in
narco-traffickers.
By Chris Kraul, Times Staff Writer
MEXICO CITY — The New Year's Eve slaying of a narco-trafficker's
brother in Mexico's highest-security prison resulted Wednesday in the
detention of the prison warden and renewed criticism of the
government's seeming inability to curb the power and reach of the
nation's deadly drug cartels.
Arturo Guzman Loera, brother of Sinaloa-based drug lord Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzman, was shot seven times by an assassin in an area of La
Palma prison set aside for inmates to talk with their attorneys.
Guards arrested inmate Jose Ramirez Villanueva, who is already serving
time for murder.
Revenge killings are common in Mexico's drug underworld, but Guzman
Loera's slaying was the third case of a high-profile trafficking
suspect being killed inside the prison in a year. The incident has
raised questions about the ability of President Vicente Fox's
government to protect inmates and provide justice.
In May, drug trafficking suspect Alberto Soberanes was strangled in a
shower room at La Palma, and in October, Miguel Angel Beltran Lugo, an
alleged lieutenant to Joaquin Guzman, was shot to death in the prison
cafeteria. A key question is how the weapons used in the killings got
inside the prison, which has multiple security checks.
"You can understand one, but three?" said Jorge Chabat, a Mexico City
professor and expert on organized crime. "This is an embarrassment to
the country, and it has some political cost for Fox because it shows
he's not very efficient. It shows the Mexican state is very weak."
Guzman Loera was indicted on drug charges in a U.S. federal court
several years ago, and U.S. officials were in the process of
requesting his extradition at the time of his slaying. His brother
Joaquin escaped from the Puente Grande prison in a laundry basket in
January 2001. The United States government has offered a $5-million
reward for information leading to his capture.
La Palma warden Guillermo Montoya Salazar was fired Tuesday and
detained Wednesday for investigation.
Ramirez Villanueva told investigators that he was ordered under a
threat of death to carry out the killing, but did not say by whom. One
theory is that Guzman Loera's slaying was ordered by Juarez drug
cartel leader Vicente Carrillo Fuentes in revenge for the September
slaying of his brother Rodolfo outside a Culiacan mall.
John Fernandes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's San Diego division, said the assassination resulted
from a "repositioning for power" among cartels weakened by recent
arrests on both sides of the border.
"This killing is typical of the trade, without question, when you have
the degree of destruction that the trafficking organizations in Mexico
have had to deal with," Fernandes said.
Ernesto Lopez Portillo, director of the Institute for Security and
Democracy think tank in Mexico City, said the killing was the
culmination of organized crime's decade-long bid to take control of
the Mexican penal system. The process has been hastened by the arrival
of several captured traffickers at La Palma, including Benjamin
Arellano Felix, the alleged leader of the so-called Tijuana cartel.
"It shows the carelessness of the government not to have foreseen the
escalation of violence that could result and the necessary controls
required to avoid it," Lopez Portillo said.
In addition to Arellano Felix, La Palma houses Miguel Angel Felix
Gallardo and Rafael Caro Quintero, the Sinaloa-based drug traffickers
who were convicted of ordering the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique
"Kiki" Camarena.
Since Guzman Loera's killing, Mexico City newspapers have been full of
revelations about the case, throwing light on the problems in the
country's penal system.
On Wednesday, it was reported that the Guzman family sent a letter in
October warning the government that Arturo's life was in danger and
that he should be moved to another prison.
Prison guards walked off the job at La Palma briefly Tuesday after
prison systems chief Carlos Tornero Diaz accused unnamed prison
employees of "high treason" for allowing Ramirez Villanueva to carry
out the killing. Guards returned when Tornero Diaz issued an apology.
Some members of opposition parties in the Mexican Congress want more
officials fired, including Tornero Diaz and federal Secretary of
Public Security Ramon Martin Huerta.
"The people charged with keeping order in the prisons give evidence of
a high level of incompetence, which is why it is imperative to remove
them," said Jose Nava Altamirano, a deputy belonging to the
Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a member of the
Democratic Revolution Party and a possible presidential candidate in
2006, said that army troops should take over security at La Palma
prison until "honorable" guards and administrators could be trained.
Fox and his National Action Party have stood behind public security
minister Huerta, who came under pressure to resign last month after
two Federal Preventive Police members were attacked and killed by a
mob in a Mexico City suburb.
Officials in Fox's government have admitted that their control over
the penal system is tenuous.
In August, deputy attorney general for organized crime Jose Luis
Santiago Vasconcellos said the Zetas, a group of corrupt former
anti-drug police turned traffickers, were planning to break into La
Palma to free narco-traffickers held inside.
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn.
Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
--------------------------
Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL
PROTECTED]
--------------------------
Brooks Isoldi, editor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.intellnet.org
Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has
not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of
The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT
YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of
intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods,
techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other
intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use
this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,'
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
